Fargo shooting updates: Suspect had search history of mass shooting events

From Minnesota Public Radio

Law enforcement officials gave an update Friday morning on the investigation into last week’s fatal shooting in Fargo, N.D. Last Friday, a gunman opened fire on police and firefighters as they responded to a traffic crash in Fargo, killing one officer and wounding two other officers and a woman at the scene.

The gunman, identified as 37-year-old Mohamad Barakat, was shot and killed by an officer.

Officer Jake Wallin, 23, was killed in the shooting. Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes were hospitalized with critical injuries. After the shooting, officers obtained search warrants for Barakat’s car and residence. Numerous guns, ammunition, gas canisters, trail cameras and phones were found, along with a variety of grenade parts.

Wrigley said throughout the investigation, BCI investigators found Barakat didn’t have much of a social media presence, nor a lot of interaction with people.

Investigators also found search results on Barakat’s device for “mass shooting events,” “area events,” “how to kill,” and a news story titled “Thousands enjoy first day of downtown Fargo street fair.”

“We don’t at this moment see additional threat emanating out of this moment,” Wrigley said.

I watched some of the press conference via CBS Minnesota. 

The North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley spoke at length. He went through the circumstances of who shot who and from what direction etc, demonstrating that the shooting and death of the gunman Mohamad Barakat was justified.  It sounded very through to me, unfamiliar with the US protocol. 

The questions from the floor elicited some interesting answers. Mohamad Barakat aged 37 was a Syrian national, he came to the US in 2012 under asylum regulations and became a US citizen in 2019. The AG could not, when asked, give details of through what city, before he came to Fargo.  Barakat worked at various odd jobs. 

He repeated the information that Barakat had search ‘massed casualty events’ use of massed weaponry’ had searched for large crowd events taking place locally and it was agreed that he was likely to have been heading towards the Fargo Street Fair. 

When asked was he on the radar of Federal Agents the rely was he was not, but had been the subject of a Guardian order. When asked what a ‘Guardian Order’ was the AG said he had had to find out himself after last Friday. It is an alert about someone raised by a concerned citizen. He could, or wouldn’t say who about what, but it was not bound to be about an act of violence. 

He was asked about religious affiliations and replied that Barakat had no connection with the Muslim community in Fargo. He gave the familiar caution about not drawing conclusions. 

When asked about a possible accomplice as he had more weapons and ammunition than one man could practically have used the AG said that investigations were on going but they were happy there was no further danger to the public. Every answer was ‘we don’t know’. 

Absolutely no idea of motive. 

One of the questions on Twitter (to be taken with a pinch of salt but useful in gauging a range of opinion) is why is such a potentially dreadful mass murder not a serious item on National News. Maybe it is by now. 

The other wounded officers and the civilian bystander are making progress in their recovery; that is good news.